SAGE: BLACK
by Melanie Malachite
Summary: Team SAGE has a dark secret, and Blake begins to suspect that her new friend is in on it. What does Yuno know about her teammates? No OC's, just crazy people. The shadows are closing in even more now.
1. Prologue To A Cornered Animal

Deep in the forest, a dark-haired girl stood alone. There were two other girls around her, but they weren't going to be moving. One had been run through with a sword, and was lying dead on the ground. The other was pinned to a nearby tree, a spear through her chest keeping her in place. It was silent.

The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a syringe, holding in her hands. She peered at the strange liquid inside, then down at the girl on the ground. She shook her head sadly. "What did they do to you, Yang?"

She winced and dropped the syringe. She reached up to the top of her head. It hurt too much for her to bear, so she grabbed the bow and pulled it off. She looked in the direction of the sun, shielding her eyes from the day's bright first rays of light. She wiped away some of the blood that had been dripping down the side of her head, then looked over to the girl hanging from the tree.

Reaching up, she grabbed the spear and pulled it free, letting the girl collapse to the ground. It was time for revenge. Nothing else mattered anymore.

* * *

At the center of Beacon Academy stood a statue depicting ancient war heroes, and at the base of the statue was a young woman with long black hair. On top of her head rested a black bow that stayed stiff in the light wind that swept through that day. Her bright yellow eyes studied the small book in her hands as she slowly flipped from one page to the next. Her name was Blake Belladonna.

Not long ago, she had been peacefully reading her book when her partner had interrupted her. Her partner, a loud and energetic blond named Yang Xiao Long, wanted Blake to follow her. She had done so, and continued to do so for almost half an hour before it became apparent that Yang had forgotten anyone was following her. Blake didn't know what Yang had wanted, and she no longer cared. It clearly wasn't too important.

So Blake had returned to a place of peace, although a different place so that Yang wouldn't be able to find her again too quickly. Not many of her fellow students were walking by at this time, and none of them warranted any particular attention, so Blake was left to read. She only took a short moment to look up when a trio of girls with long, brightly-colored hair walked past. Blue and green were colors she had seen before, but pink was new to her.

Before Blake could return to her book and give the girls no further thought, a fourth girl ran to meet with them. She had strawberry-blond hair, and was dressed rather oddly compared to the others. Blake realized that the four must have been a team. She found it interesting to note that all four girls wore comparatively normal clothing, and there was not a piece of armor among them. It was strange to see people like them at a school like Beacon.

They moved on, so Blake turned back to her book, giving them not another thought. About a page later, book-wise, Blake found her attention again being taken by someone else. It was that girl with the pink hair. She had seated herself right beside Blake, and was peeking over her shoulder at the book.

"What are you reading?"

Blake didn't feel like going to the trouble of avoiding the girl, so she answered the question. "It's about two lovers on opposite sides of a war. There's a man, who is a Human soldier, and he falls in love with a young Faunus woman..." She narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Are you really interested?"

She absently nodded, then stopped and shrugged. "Eh... I don't know yet. How does it end?"

Blake rolled her eyes. "How it ends... right. In the end, she refuses to stop fighting for her freedom, so he kills her. Then, filled with regret, he takes his own life." Seeing the girl's wide-eyed face of shock, Blake tried to reassure her. "It is fictional, just in a historical setting. It never really happened."

She nodded, then laughed. "Of course! Just a story! I knew that."

Blake was about to return to reading when she noticed something else. The girl had a book of her own. Blake let a small grin show. "What are you reading?" She pointed to the book and smiled.

The girl blushed and held the book close to her. "Oh... well... it's about a girl who wants to go home, but she's trapped in another world. The people in the other world live happily without knowing she's trapped in their world, so she gets angry and wants to destroy them... um..."

Blake smiled again. "How does it end?"

"Well... after five hundred years of being trapped, she hates the beautiful world she's in and tries to destroy it, but only ruins her own life and those of the people she once cared for."

Blake thought about it for a moment, thinking that there was quite a lot about the story she hadn't mentioned, but she decided to let it slide. "That sounds like it's a pretty tragic story. It's a good thing these are just stories, isn't it."

She smiled in response. "Yeah... just stories."

Blake placed a bookmark in between the pages of her book and closed it. "A really good thing. I don't think I could live in a world where this stuff happened for real. Our world is messed up, but it's not that bad."

The girl looked away. "Yeah. Sure it's not."

Blake stood up and held her hand out to the girl. "I'm Blake, by the way."

Also standing up, the girl took Blake's hand and shook it, suddenly becoming much cheerier. "Nice to meet you, Blake. I'm Yuno Gasai."

"And I'm Ruby!" A hand and arm shot past Blake's face and thrust itself into the handshake. Ruby shook both their hands enthusiastically. She eventually stopped, then turned to Blake. "Uh, if you see Weiss or Yang, tell them I'm going be back a bit late. I won't be past midnight, but I don't want them worrying."

Yuno giggled and backed away, slowly leaving the scene. Blake watched her go, then looked over at Ruby. "What are you going to be doing?"

Ruby just shrugged. "There's just something that I wanted to check out. That's all." With that, she ran off.

Blake shook her head and sighed. Her team's leader was difficult to understand at times, but it was best to let these things be. Besides, Ruby was quite capable of taking care of herself. There was no need to worry. Seeing it was getting late, Blake decided it was time to head in.


	2. Black Waters

It was well past midnight, and Ruby hadn't yet returned. When Blake arrived at their room Yang was already asleep, just short of a miracle. Weiss eventually started to wonder where Ruby was, so Blake reassured her and gave her Ruby's message. Three hours later, Ruby had missed midnight by two hours. Weiss wasn't about to sit and wait any longer, and neither was Blake.

The difference was that Blake wanted to wake Yang so she could help find Ruby, but Weiss was intent on charging into the night to find the missing girl. Blake stopped her just before she opened the door.

"Wait a moment. I'm going to wake Yang."

Weiss rolled her eyes, but waited for a carefully timed out moment. Blake shook their blond teammate, trying to wake her. Yang still didn't stir even when her name was called.

Weiss shook her head. "Oh, forget her. We've got to get going."

Blake looked up to Weiss, who still had her hand on the doorknob. "We can't just leave her here. Not with what's happened."

"We need to move! Now! Waiting for Yang to wake up could take hours!"

Blake sighed irately. "She'd probably..." She glanced over at Yang. "Actually, I don't know how much pain she would inflict if you left her out of this."

"Oi! Would you three keep it quiet? I'm trying to sleep!"

Yang's sudden outburst made them both jump, but while Weiss gripped the doorknob harder, Blake just relaxed and looked back over to her partner. "There's only two of us here, Yang."

Yang blinked groggily at her teammates for a few seconds before finally figuring out who was missing. "Where's Ruby? ...What time is it?"

Weiss snapped at the half-asleep girl. "It's two in the morning, and we haven't seen Ruby since classes ended. We were about to go out looking for her, but Blake wanted a third person for the search party."

Suddenly, Yang was out of bed and getting dressed. Ember Celica was equipped and ready faster than Weiss or Blake could say 'Goldilocks'. Yang turned and glared right through Weiss. "Who saw her last?"

Blake raised her hand, not wanting to waste more time than Yang wanted to. "Of us, I think I did. We should wake team JNPR and ask them."

Weiss flung the door open. "And waste more time? We should have already left!" Before any more argument could be made, she was gone.

Blake looked back to Yang, who gave her a nod. "You go get them. I'll make sure Weiss doesn't get lost." Then she too disappeared down the hallway.

Left alone in their room, Blake just shrugged. "They're right across the hall..." She stepped out into the dark halls of the dorm building and closed the door behind her. Turning around, she knocked on JNPR's door.

There was no response. She knocked again and waited, but got no response. She was starting to consider breaking the door down when it finally opened to reveal Pyrrha in… not quite pajamas or a nightgown.

"Pyrrha... why are you still in your school uniform?"

The warrior girl sighed and turned to look at the arrangement of beds behind her. They were all lined up side by side, and three of them were empty. Well, unless you count one person being sprawled across the whole lot. Pyrrha grumbled something.

"Jaune... behaves quite differently when he's asleep. I have to put up with a fair amount of snuggling." Blake had to suppress a smile at that, but Pyrrha caught it. "The rest of us drew straws. Ren won, so he sleeps the farthest away from Jaune."

Blake shook herself back to the matter at hand. "Well, anyway, Ruby's gone missing. We were wondering if any of you guys had seen her?"

Pyrrha glanced back at her snoring team leader, then just shrugged. "We haven't seen Ren or Nora since this afternoon. Maybe they're with Ruby."

Considering that, Blake decided Ruby was probably all right. "Okay, well, Weiss and Yang are out looking for her."

"That's cool! We'll help find Ruby!" Blake and Pyrrha jumped, startled by the shout. Standing behind Blake was Nora, and behind her was Ren. True to her word, Nora cupped her hands around her mouth and called out. "RUBY!"

Pyrrha waved her hands, trying to keep Nora from yelling again. Blake's bow flattened onto her head, but that escaped everyone's notice. In team JNPR's room, Jaune bolted upright in sudden alarm. The damage had already been done. Doors up and down the hall started opening, and people started coming out to see what the noise was about. Some turned back around when they saw Nora, but not too many.

It wasn't long before school staff started showing up. Glynda Goodwitch looked particularly displeased. "There had better be a very good reason for this much noise this late at night."

Now in the spotlight, Blake had no choice but to answer. "Uh, it's Ruby. She's gone missing. She said she would be back by midnight, and when she didn't show up Weiss and Yang went to find her."

Professor Ozpin appeared beside Glynda, a mug of coffee in his hand. "I don't think Ruby would go missing without good reason. Blake, come with me. We'll search outside."

To Blake's surprise and irritation, it was Cardin Winchester who stepped forward. "I think I saw someone outside not too long ago. They were standing near the pond."

Ozpin turned to him, interested. "Did you see where they went?"

Cardin shook his head. "Nah, I looked away for a second and when I looked back they were gone. Come to think of it, I think there were some ripples on the surface afterwards. Maybe they fell in?"

Ozpin motioned to Cardin's team. "You four come with us then. Everyone else spread out and start searching."

Blake followed Ozpin, trying her best to ignore the fact that Cardin's team was all around her. As soon as they were outside she spotted Yang and Weiss walking along the trail beside the pond, so she went to join them. They were better company than CRDL any day.

Walking up behind her teammates, Blake decided to get a higher vantage point. She walked over to one of the trees alongside the path and jumped up. Before she could get to a good spot so she could see further, she heard the sounds of something following her. She turned around, ready to fend off whatever it might be, only to find herself facing Weiss.

Before either of them could say anything, the sound of Ember Celica going off split the night. Blake heard it, but not soon enough to avoid being hit in the back by the shot. She fell forwards, knocking Weiss out of the tree. Yang then said something, but Blake couldn't hear it as her ears were still ringing. A fiery pain shot through her body from the point of impact, and she began to wonder how badly her clothes and hair were damaged. Yang's weapons weren't terribly much for causing serious physical injury at longer ranges.

Blake shook herself out of the daze, finding that she was laying on a large branch near the bottom of the tree. Below her, she could see Weiss lying on the ground with Gambol Shroud in her hand after grabbing onto the weapon instead of a branch to keep herself from falling. Yang stepped over carefully, her weapons trained on Weiss. Blake had to remind herself that neither of them could likely see very well at this time of night.

Yang called out to Weiss. "You're under arrest for scaring the crap outta me! Identify yourself or suffer further warning shots!" Weiss just lifted Gambol Shroud up for Yang to see.

Blake sighed and called down to her partner. "I can't believe you just shot me, Yang."

Yang glanced up at her with a hint of confusion. "Then who is…" She looked back down just as Weiss sat up. The palm of Yang's hand met her face. "What just happened?"

Weiss tossed Gambol Shroud back up to Blake and explained her side of the story. Blake didn't pay attention to it. She just waited for her part. Eventually, Yang looked up to Blake. The blond was quite obviously embarrassed to have made such a mistake.

"I am so unbelievably sorry. Are you alright?"

Blake shrugged. "You shoot fire, Yang. It hurts a bit, but doesn't really do anything more than that. I'll be fine." She felt her back, noticing some crispy parts of her hair and clothing. Her skin was a bit scorched as well, but she knew finding Ruby was more important.

Yang still seemed concerned. "You're sure?"

"I've been punched by a Death Stalker. I think I can take a little punishment before I'm down." She rolled off of the branch and landed beside her teammates, quickly standing back up. "But I think you might have burnt my hair."

Yang just shook her head. "Again, I'm sorry." She glanced around. "I thought you were going to get JNPR. Where are they?"

Blake pointed in the direction of the school building. "Oh, they're searching inside with everyone else. Out her, it's just the three of us, Professor Ozpin, and Cardin's team."

Weiss looked back at her. "You woke up everyone?"

Blake rolled her eyes. "Nora did."

Yang just shrugged. "Oh well. It won't take nearly as long to find her this way. Why is CRDL looking out here?"

Blake just pointed across the pond to where Cardin and his team were investigating the water. "Cardin said he thought he saw someone out here from his window. According to him, they were at the edge of the pond. He looked away for a moment, and when he looked back they were gone, but the water was rippling."

"They think Ruby fell in the water?!"

Blake winced at the shout from the other two girls. They rushed to the edge of the pond, and Yang dived straight in. Weiss looked ready to follow right up to the point where she skidded to a halt at the water's edge. The splash from Yang's entrance caught Weiss, getting pond water all over her dress.

Weiss looked down at her wet clothes. "Oh… great. Just great!"

Blake arched an eyebrow at Weiss' reaction. "Ruby could have drowned and you're concerned about your skirt getting wet?"

Weiss turned on her. "I'm pretty sure Ruby can swim. If you want to jump in there and try to rescue someone who's probably not even in there, be my guest!" When Blake didn't move, Weiss nodded pointedly. "That's what I thought!"

Blake turned and looked into the dark waters of the pond. She shook her head. "My reason for staying up here is different."

Weiss crossed her arms. "Really? And what might that be?"

"It's… well…" Blake glanced back to the water. It was dark, gloomy, murky, foreboding, ominous, and many other things she didn't like. "It's not that… I…" But none of that was any reason for her to stay out of it. Not at a time like this. "Uh… I don't…" It was just too wet.

"You can't swim."

Blake looked back to Weiss, who was practically glaring at her. "I… what?"

"Just admit it. You can't swim! You don't know how to swim!"

Now, that just wasn't true. "I can swim perfectly fine. I just… don't… like to."

Weiss got right in Blake's face. "You don't like to? Ruby could have drowned and you're concerned about your precious little self getting wet?" Weiss stamped her foot and walked away, leaving Blake in silence.

Standing alone by the edge of the water, Blake suddenly realized that Yang had been under far too long. Some distance along the edge, Ozpin seemed to have thought so as well. He dived in, leaving his coffee on the walkway. Starting to worry about her partner, Blake decided it was time to take a leap forward.

She broke through the surface and was instantly wrapped in the cold embrace of the water. She had no doubt Ozpin and Yang would have difficulty seeing down here, but she had a slight advantage. It was still dark, but at least she could navigate with more than her hands to guide her. Of course, she hadn't lied. She was in fact a very capable swimmer. She just didn't like the feeling of being underwater. Even so, two strong kicks and she was at the bottom.

Looking around her, she saw no sign of Yang or Ozpin. She hoped that meant they were back above the surface, but she had to be sure. She moved further away from the edge of the pond and closer to the middle, and then things started to get… weird. The water was warmer and looked like it had changed from murky brown-black to a more rusty color. On top of that was a sound, like ripping and tearing.

A few meters further and Blake saw it. Resting on the bottom of the pond was a body. It had been stripped and decapitated, so she only tell that it was a girl. Could it have been Ruby, or even Yang? She had no way of knowing, though the breasts looked somewhat smaller than Yang's. The body was almost drained of color, and the blood coming from the stump of a neck had mixed with the pond water.

A sudden chill went up her spine. She looked around, hoping not to see the source of the noise, but whatever had been tearing something apart had stopped. Blake saw nobody and nothing else that could have caused the noise, but something did catch her eye. Only a few feet away from the corpse was the entrance to an underwater cave. Blake's mind raced, thinking of all the answers that she might find in there. It seemed the only thing to do, so she went in.


End file.
